Beans from Scratch

Ooooh look my blog looks different! I like to switch it up every once in a while. I'm really loving Moroccan patterns right now. So this might stay for a while, we'll see what I feel like tomorrow :) I got the awesome social media buttons here and there's instructions on how to put them on your blog here. And lastly, I found this amazing website that's a digital scrapbook generator. It's bomb for blog backgrounds (like mine) so you don't have to make them. You can find that here. Maybe this is old news to the rest of the blogging world but that's okay because I thought it was awesome.

Our daily routine has been the usual; class, homework, gym, dinner, meetings, tests etc. but we're doing good and keeping our grades way up! I forgot to post some recipes I made and enjoyed and I didn't get picture of the soup... oops.

Tortilla Soup

Dan isn't a huge fan of soup but really, he'll eat anything. I decided to give this recipe a try because I already had all the ingredients and it was Mexican and Dan likes Mexican. I think I put to much chili powder in but it was still delicious. We did have limes but I added shredded chicken to it. I added sour cream to my soup which made it even more delicious and cut down on the spicy for me. I ate it as leftovers for days to come. It was great.

Black Bean Enchiladas

So I wanted to try this mainly because of the homemade enchilada sauce. Confession unless I'm baking I almost never follow the recipe exactly unless I know it's going to really change the taste. I take a lot of liberties depending on what's in the cupboards :) So Dan and I are being frugal and healthy so we bought dry beans from winco. I've never made dry beans before but he knows how because his mom's done it. But we didn't have black beans so pinto it is! So in our enchiladas there were pinto beans, onions, corn, lettuce, cheese and all the spices it calls for. They were really good. So good that Dan ate 2 and a half and that I ate 2. I will definitely be making this again. This will probably become a regular- and that's a big deal. I personally love this homemade enchilada sauce rather than the canned- it does taste different but it's healthier for you. And guess what else we did to be frugal and healthy? We made dry beans!

We bought the beans in bulk at Winco because they are a lot cheaper than canned or even already bagged beans. I don't really know how to make beans from dry but Dan told me, he's like an expert.

First you rinse them and pick out any bad ones. Then soak them over night in plenty of water.

The next morning I drained and rinsed them then let them soak until the afternoon.

Then I boiled them in lots of water for about an hour. I think they could have gone a little longer but we were leaving. It was great and I like the taste of these beans a lot more than canned. Canned beans have a lot of sodium and the liquid they come in kind of grosses me out. Plus for some reason my digestive system has a problem with canned pinto beans. Maybe it's the preservatives or something. But anyways I love this! I love being frugal and healthy :) Plus the enchiladas probably turned out BOMB because of my beans... duh!

I am so excited for Valentines Day! And I just realized it's probably for the first time ever. I think being married makes it so much better, now I will always have a Valentine! We have some great plans for it and the weekend so I'm super excited :) Stayed tuned to hear all about them!